


The Fourth Of July... Probably...

by Nanerich



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Sort of at least, any ways..., holiday fic, just not a christmas one, steve's birthday, whoopsie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21916684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanerich/pseuds/Nanerich
Summary: How in the name of everything that was good in this world, did the general population come to the conclusion that Stee's brthday was on the fourth of July? His birthrecords weren't classified after all...But that had gone way to far for Steve to correct the people. Guess hus birthday was on the fourth now.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Avengers Team
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	The Fourth Of July... Probably...

“We are talking to the man, Captain America himself! Thank you for joining us today, here at the Jack Berch Show.”

“It is my pleasure.” Steve smiled at Mr. Berch. The two men sat opposite each other, a microphone in front of each of them and a red lamp in the middle lighting up.

“So, Mr. Rogers, now we know that you are the pinnacle of what is happening in the political world. But here, on the Jack Berch show, we want to encourage and highlight good deeds, to show that there is more to this world than destruction, war and pain. So, instead of introducing Captain America to the population, we would like to get to know the man behind the shield.”

Steve was really looking forward to that. As glad as he was to be part of the fight against the Nazis – sort of at least – it was nice to take a break from punching Hitler in the face and let his inner artist out instead.

And that’s what they talked about: his artwork, his childhood, what he and Bucky got up to…

“Now, we are almost out if time. But before we say goodbye, there is one thing about the Captain I like to address: You were born a patriot, weren’t you?”

“I believe that is true of every American citizen.” What was he getting at?

“I hope so”, Jack laughed, “but you even more than the rest of us, am I right?”

Huh? “I’m sorry Jack, I can’t follow… What are you getting at exactly?”

“Well, because your birthday is on the fourth of July!”

“Oh, right…” What was he talking about? His birthday was in November!

“You were born for this role, weren’t you?”

Should he play along? If it ever came out, he would lose all his credibility! But it would be really funny, especially explaining it to Bucky! He already could see his friend’s face, heard his laughter; “you punk didn’t!”

Maybe Steve should push it a little further…

“Believe it or not, but my favourite food is apple pie…”

“Really?”

No, not even close. “Yes, it is.”

Berch laughed out loud. “You truly are Captain America!”

This interview blew up way bigger than Steve imagined. So much so, that a few weeks later, on the fourth of July, his crew threw him a huge birthday party, including a giant, star-shaped apple pie. Oh, goody.

“Wow, thank you so much, I love it!”

No, he didn’t. Steve hated apple pie. Who thought that these weirdly mushy apples were delicious? Oh, and let’s put cinnamon on top, because that’s gonna make everything so much better…

But Steve brought this on himself, so he just had to get through it.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“So, Fourth of July, huh?”

They had been back to basecamp for three days, but only now Bucky and Steve were by themselves, alone enough to talk openly.

Steve glanced over at a smirking Bucky and grinned back. “I thought you might find it funny.”

“I really do”, he snickered, “even more than the apple-pie-thing. You punk.”

Steve joined in his laughter. “I’ve been dying to share this with you!”

“You going to ‘fess up eventually?”

“God, no!” Violently, Steve shook his head. “It’s gone way to far already. Also, it’s actually really beneficial for the character…”

“This is going to be so much fun!” Laughing loudly, Bucky clapped his hands together.

“I’m never going to hear the end of it, am I?” Steve already saw it: apple pie, every fourth for the rest of his life…

Bucky just shook his head, a smug grin on his face.

“Yeah, well, you’re just jealous that I get to have two birthdays and you don’t…”

“Please”, Buck snorted, “like you can ever celebrate your real birthday ever again.”

Steve just shrugged. “Let all of them celebrate the Captain on Independence Day. All I need on my real birthday is you.”

“Ugh, you sappy punk.” Bucky jokingly rolled his eyes. “But yeah, I’ll be right there, with a big piece of apple pie!”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“Happy birthday to you!”

What the fuck? The common room was filled with balloons and Bruce and Nat were holding a giant ‘Birthday Boy’-banner. 

They had to be kidding him. 70 years and no one bothered to check his fucking birth certificate?

“Looking good for 95, Capsicle!” Stark walked up to him, shaking his hand. “Birthday on Independence Day… You throw up Red, White and Blue as well?”

“Thank you! Wow, what a wonderful surprise”, Steve lied.

“Captain, I was told about your fancies, so I have researched until I found the very best recipe for apple pie and I hope you like it!” Thor held a big pie in his hands, with a lot of candles on it. Steve didn’t bother to count them, but if Thor’s proud grin was anything to go by, there were 95 of them. Great.

“Thank you so much, Thor, it looks fantastic!” Steve hoped that the smile on his face didn’t look as forced as it felt.

“Can we please dig in? It smells so good!” Clint walked in, a stack of plates in one hand and some forks in the other. “Happy birthday, by the way, you fossil.”

“Thanks, Clint.”

“So, do you need someone to help you out with that? Like cutting, I’d be down to feed you, if your frail old hands are to shaky…”, Nat snickered.

“Seriously? Romanoff, I fought Nazi’s long before you were even an idea, I could handle boot camp, Red Skull and Howard Stark, this is literally a piece of cake for me.” _Even if it’s disgusting_.

“So, Tony’s dad is on the same level as Hydra?”

Steve and Tony just exchanged glance, before Tony shrugged. “Eh…”

“Alright then… Pie anyone?”

Unfortunately, this became a tradition, including specials on TV about him and what nots and with every year and every interview the fear of being caught got worse. Puh, lying to the public was a lot easier before the internet…

And then, 2018. The year of his 100 th birthday. Steve tried blocking it out, but his co-heroes, fans and the media turned it into a bigger and bigger spectacle. Having Bucky back was not helping. Sure, Steve was over the moon that his best friend was still alive and no longer a brainwashed assassin of Hydra but still… He used every chance he got to push the jokes further, to almost expose him. Buck also drove the party-planning like he was on a mission from god:

“Peter, that is a fantastic idea! We should definitively get a life-sized ice sculpture of Steve!”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any baby pictures, that’d be a sweet slide show!”

“Thank you for your input, Thor, but I don’t think we have those… things… in earth.”

Long story short, Steve dreaded the fourth of July like never before. Which was a shame because the Avenger parties were good, really good. If he didn’t have that little, gnawing feeling of guilt and shame and a bit of fear…

And, faster than he liked, July4th 2018 was here, his ‘100 th ’. Wow, they pulled out all the stops. It was incredible. They did do everything they promised: A life-size ice sculpture, a massive buffett (which was probably due to all the supermetabolisms in this house), balloons, posters, a big pile of presents and… no apple pie?

Instead, while they were singing ‘Happy Birthday’ very loudly and off-key, Thor wheeled out a huge cake, at least five feet tall, in red, white and blue, stars everywhere and a replica of his shield stuck on top.

Steve was absolutely speechless. He felt his chin dropping but couldn’t do anything about it. 

He heard Peter squealing somewhere next to Tony. “He likes my idea!”

“Kid, I love it!”

“I’m happy, but you haven’t seen the best part yet!”, he giggled excitedly. “FRIDAY? Get this party started!”

Some song started playing. Steve knew it, from somewhere… If he heard the lyrics maybe it would…

“I got a feeling!”

“Oh, I know this song!”, he yelled excitedly, “from the beans? No, peas something right?”

Peter nodded, just as excitedly, singing along and animating the others to dance along with him. Damn, Clint, Nat and Tony had some moves… 

And just as the bass hit, the cake in front of him exploded and out jumped Bucky, singing along even louder and more tuneless than the others: “TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT! LET’S LIVE IT UP!”

“Oh. My. Goodness.” Steve wasn’t exactly sure how to react. If his chin wasn’t on the floor earlier, it was now.

But he had no time to collect his ideas and thoughts, because Maria grabbed his hand, pulled him into the huddle of Avengers and well, Steve was raised better than to refuse a lady asking him to dance.

Or a gentleman, which meant he shared a dance with almost everyone of the group. Eventually, Bucky pulled him up on that pedestal. 

It was the best fun Steve has had in a while. For this night, all that matter were his friends, his family pretty much, plenty of non-apple-pie-birthday-cake and a lot of dancing.

When he fell into his bed in the early morning hours, he thought to himself:  _“Well, maybe the fourth isn’t that bad after all….”_

November 23 rd . Steve’s actual 100 th birthday. He didn’t really care, though, he already had the best birthday in July. He sat in the living room, a book in his lap, but not really focusing on reading it. 

Instead, he thought back to the last time he celebrated his actual birthday, his twentieth. Probably; Steve wasn’t exactly sure what year it was, but that is forgivable, after all it was about 80 years ago! It wasn’t a big party, actually just Bucky. Steve was bedridden, probably pneumonia and therefore half-dead for the umpteenth time. But still, he had quite a few cards and gifts his friends sent, wishing him mostly health. 

Buck had made a cake, at least that’s what he said. To this day Steve believes that it was actually his mum, because that cake was way to delicious to be made in their flat’s little kitchen. But Bucky stuck with his story, swears that he made it and it was so nice that Steve didn’t care.

They spend the entire day at their place, Steve huddled up in a blanket, just chatting, enjoying the cake and playing a boardgame or two.

“Happy Birthday, punk.”

His friend’s voice ripped Steve out of his daydreams; when he realized where exactly he was, he saw Bucky standing in front of him, a little cake in his hands.

“Eat it quickly, before anyone sees you”, he teased before falling down on the couch next to him.

“Haha. Thanks, it looks great. No one’s going to jump out of this one though?”, he joked.

“Uh, I haven’t seen Antman for a few hours, maybe be careful while cutting.”

“Alright”, Steve laughed. “So, did you make this one yourself?”, he asked with a smug grin.

Buck clutched his chest with a deeply hurt expression on his face. “After 80 years you still doubt me?”

“Well…”, he shrugged.

“Steven Grant Rogers. You are impossible. Punk.”

“Jerk.”

They shot each other a few provocative looks, before breaking out in laughter.

“I can’t believe that after everything that happened in eighty years no less, nothing really changed, has it?”

“I love you, too, man.”

“So, you want to share?”, Bucky grinned over.

“Excuse me? I thought this was my birthday cake?”

“Birthday cake?”

Before they could start play-arguing about something Steve would do anyways, they were interrupted by Stark.

“Hey Tony.” Shit, shit, shit. He’s been caught. “Uhm, it’s Bucky’s. I made it for him. Happy Birthday, man!”

“Yeah, right. Barnes’ birthday is in March. And you literally just said that this was your birthday cake.” Tony raised his eyebrow. He didn’t buy it. Damnit.

“Man, I always thought you being born on the fourth of July was to much of a coincidence…”, he all but exhaled as he sat on the couch opposite them. “So. You lied. To all of America. Wow, very patriotic.”

Steve felt his face reddening. “Uhm, well, not technically. I never said the fourth was my birthday, everyone just assumed. I mean, how is it my fault that no one ever bothered to check my birth certificate?”

Stark started laughing. “It’s almost admirable that you managed to keep it secret for like 80 years! Man, next thing you’ll tell me you hate apple pie…”

Embarrassed, Steve looked first at Bucky, who was surpressing his laughter, then at the floor, before looking back up at Tony.

“Seriously? Oh wow, I really did not see that coming… Seriously?”

Steve shrugged contrite.

“You see, Stark, you thought I was the bad influence on him, but in all honesty, this”, he gestured at Steve, “is what happens when I’m not around.”

Tony looked like he had no idea what to say or how to take all off this and was silent for a few moments until he started talking again: “Alright. I guess you would like to keep this secret from the general population?”

“Come on, Tony, the Avengers have enough secrets as it is, one more or less doesn’t matter, does it?”

“No, not really. So, I guess a happy birthday is in order.”

“Thanks.” He smiled at Tony, who still looked a little confused, but mostly fine.

“You want to celebrate it? Your real birthday that is? Oh, and should we tell the group?”

“Nah”, Steve leaned back, “thanks for the offer, but I already had a pretty great birthday party this year. And about the others… Don’t ask, don’t tell, right? But if they do, you don’t have to lie for me.”

“I appreciate that. Alright, I guess I’ll leave you to your old folks home party then.” With a grin on his face, Tony got up, patted Steve on the shoulder and let the two by themselves.

“Let me get this straight, Tony offers you a second birthday party and you say no?”

Steve laughed. “Do you remember, back in the day, when you first found out, what I said to you?”

“Let them celebrate Cap on the Fourth”, Bucky recalled with a soft smile.

“Exactly. Because all I need on my real birthday is you.”


End file.
